According to a story on CNN.com, 60 Minutes ran a program suggesting that jurors in one Mississippi county were guilty of “jackpot justice” and were awarding monetary damages that were too high.
Naturally, a couple of the jurors have filed a lawsuit against 60 Minutes seeking $6 billion in damages.
Mjollnir beat you by a few hours, MEB
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=149441
Darn it!
Obviously, I shall have to sue him.
Can anybody tell me how they could have been damaged to the tune of 597 million???
They weren’t, prolly. They’re most likely asking for punitives. Say MegaCorp. negligently injures me and causes me $100,000 in medical bills. “Bah!” says MegaCorp. “A piffle! We make that in an hour!” So they pay me off, don’t change their injurious ways and feel not a thing.
Punitive damages are designed to combat this sort of thing. They’re not so much to fix me up as they are to punish the sorry s.o.b.'s for their flagrantly bad conduct. $100,000 is nothing to MegaCorp., so show them we mean business and give me 5 million. Or 6. I meant 6.
Yeah, but they’re seeking $597 million in actual damages, plus an additional $5.9 billion in punitive damages.
Wow. I missed that. Apparently the 60 minutes story caused them to lose several limbs.
It’s a defamation suit, so I’m thinking the $597 million represents how much it’s costing them to have lost the respect of their friends and neighbors. Let’s say, by way of example, that one of the jurors owns a used-car dealership; now, though, no one wants to buy a used car from him, 'cause they’ve all seen 60 Minutes and think he was responsible for handing down unreasonably high monetary awards when he was a juror. So, his Jefferson County, Mississippi, used-car dealership has lost business to the tune of (I think there were at least two plaintiffs) $298.5 million.
Hmmm…
Or maybe it’s “loss of consortium”. Yeah, that’s it–ever since she saw that 60 Minutes the wife’s been making him sleep on the sofa. C’mon, man, you can’t put a price on that kind of thing!
…I think it would cost somebody about $60 if I lost the respect of my friends and neighbors due to their actions… 
That’s what happens when you like Styx, Grav.
Teach you!
hangs head in shame
Can we file a class-action lawsuit against the jurors, for clogging the courts with this bullshit lawsuit?